Manchester United unveiled glitzy plans for a huge new stadium that would replace their current Old Trafford home but it appears that ground won’t be broken for some time yet
Manchester United are aiming to submit a planning application for their new £2bn new stadium in the next 12 to 18 months. The Red Devils unveiled plans for a new home last March.
It would be built on the same site as their current Old Trafford home, with the local area also set to be regenerated within the plans. But the rebuild has already been hit with a few delays.
United have been locked in talks with Freightliner over a nearby freight terminal, which sits in the path of the new plans. Discussions are also taking place between the club and construction firms willing to complete such a big project.
Club chiefs have now offered a fresh update on the new stadium, with a specific target of the start of work being revealed. Chief Executive Officer of the New Stadium Development, Collette Roche, offered her take at a property trade show in Cannes.
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She said: “The plan would be that within the next couple of months we should be there or thereabouts on the land assembly which will be an important milestone.”
Roche confirmed that it would take seven months to complete the detailed design of the stadium. She added: “We’re spending a lot of time with local council to say what’s your ambition, how many houses, where’s the best place to put them so hopefully by the time we get to the planning application in 12-18 months time we won’t be starting from fresh.”
“We are going through a process to make sure we get the best team in place one that works in the same way we work and is up for the challenge and the ambition,” she said about potential firms to build the stadium. “And then we will lock that in. Then we start to build the plans. It starts now.”
Minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been a driving force behind the redevelopment of Old Trafford, having previously underlined for a ‘Wembley of the North’ before the plans were unveiled.
He said: “There's a very good case, in my view, for having a stadium of the North, which would serve the northern part of the country in that arena of football. If you look at the number of Champions League the North West has won, it's 10. London has won two.
"And yet everybody from the North has to get down to London to watch a big football match. And there should be one [a large stadium] in the North, in my view.
"But it's also important for the southern side of Manchester, you know, to regenerate. It's the sort of second capital of the country where the Industrial Revolution began.
"But if you have a regeneration project, you need a nucleus or a regeneration project and having that world-class stadium there, I think would provide the impetus to regenerate that region."